Learn From Mets' Mistakes

Five days ago, Brewer’s All-Star Ryan Braun told the media he thinks the Brewers need to make a trade. Milwaukee’s GM Doug Melvin responded kindly by saying that Braun needed to shut his face (perhaps not in those exact words, but essentially).

While Melvin could have ignored reporters and just let the comment die, his fighting back showed the GM at least wasn’t considering the far worse alternative — pushing the big red panic button up in his office.

You see, most people think the phrase “panic button” is just an expression commonly used in the English language.

But in baseball, GM’s actually have a physical panic button in their office. It’s true, my friend heard it from his cousin who read it online in a blog by a guy who swears he thought of becoming a major league scout once.

Either way, GM’s tend to push this button when media and fan pressure becomes too great, and the panic button bestows upon them a trade that could only make sense to the most warped baseball mind. 

The Royal’s operation is in fact run by a monkey who sits there and hits the button when he isn’t flinging feces around, and former Mets' GM Steve Phillip’s used to get so confused he would hit the panic button just to decide on what to eat for lunch.

This year we have already seen evidence of this with the Mets’ trade of outfielder Ryan Church for Atlanta’s Jeff Francoeur.

Only a very panicked team — which the free-falling Mets’ are — could talk themselves into the free-swinging Francoeur.

Here is a quick comparison of stats:

            Francoeur 2008 -             .239/.294/.359, 72 OPS+

Church 2008 -             .276/.346/.439, 106 OPS+

Francoeur 2009 -             .250/.282/.352, 68 OPS+

            Church 2009 -             .280/.332/.375, 88 OPS+

While Church is no Ryan Braun (or even Mike Cameron for that matter), he clearly has more value than Francoeur.

Francoeur has struck out at least 111 times in each of his full three seasons in the big leagues, but even more troubling, his homerun totals have dropped from 29 to 19 to 11 to a lowly five this year.

Mets’ GM Omar Minaya tried to justify the trade by claiming his young age and boasting of the “energy” he would bring.

"Plate discipline has been an issue with Jeff," Minaya said to SI.com. "I do believe because he's 25 years old, I think that he can improve that."

What evidence is their of that? Francoeur has never walked more than 42 times in a season and whined that he was “embarrassed” last year when he was demoted to AA-ball to work on his swing.

The only explanation is the Mets’ inexplicably still think of Francoeur as the five-toll prospect he was once dubbed by the Sports Illustrated cover, and the New York fans scare the bejeezus out of Minaya. Combine those two with the scary looking panic button, and you have a $3.3 million outfielder who has no power, plate discipline, ability to hit for average or speed (career high of 5 stolen bases in a season).

The point of this all isn’t to humiliate the Mets’ (they do a decent job of that with their play), but that making a trade for the hell of it usually just lands you a bigger shovel for the hole you keep digging. The cliché, “if you aren’t moving forward, you’re going backwards”, is just that, an old cliché.

This is something Brewers’ fans (and the Hammering Hebrew I suppose) need to keep in mind as the Brewer’s keep slumping. Making a trade just to shake things up has as much chance of success as Francoeur seeing ball four.

Melvin has done a good job assembling a strong core of talent. He got the Crew to the playoffs last year. Let’s put faith in the man who helped Milwaukee out the lonely cellar where dwell the Pirates and Reds.

Easier Said Than Done

Sorry my loyal readers for going dark for a week, but rest assured the View From the Bleachers will be updating regularly once again. Starting with this post, I am going to have a weekly segment called “Easier Said Than Done”. It is basically what it appears to be, I am going to be sounding off on things in sports I think are a mistake, but hell, I’m not a professional athlete, so it is probably easier for me to say than for those multi-millionaires to do.

ESTD – Wednesday’s game, bottom of the 2^nd, bases loaded with the Brewers already down three runs and Mike Cameron makes an out by running into a groundball that looks like it was hit by a first grade girl at a family picnic? What do you call a “rookie mistake” when it is made by a 15-year-veteran?

Speaking of which, when can we end the ridiculous cliché of “rookie mistake”. Professional athletes of all ages make mental mistakes that appear heinous from our comfy couches. Whether you are an ickle first year about to be sorted or a burly seventh year, intelligence, or lack thereof, remains roughly the same your entire adult life.

ESTD – Why don’t home plate umpires ask for help on a check swing every single time when it is even remotely close? You can’t tell the depth of a swing while sitting directly behind a hitter. The first and third base umps, however, have excellent views. The Brewers, of course, were burned by home plate umpire Bill Hohn when he disagreed with my assertions (and every other logical baseball fan) and called Gallardo on a strike out with the bases loaded, ending the inning.

This has nothing to do with the post, but…Brian Anderson (the Brewers play-by-play announcer) just called out the Giants for “drinking the Kool-aid on their own team” in spring training. Brian Anderson just accused someone else of possibly showing homerism. Brian freaking Anderson! Talk about Hermione calling someone else a nerd

ESTD – Why does Ken Macha ever, ever, ever give plate appearances to Jody Gerut? Batting .196 on the year, Gerut has hit .114 with Milwaukee and slugged an even more impressive .114 in 38 plate appearance. He has a -18 OPS+. He almost never sees more than two pitches in an at-bat before grounding weakly to second base. These numbers defy sarcasm. He makes Billy Hall look like Ryan Braun. Braun compares favorably to Babe Ruth when stacked up with Gerut (OK, so the numbers don’t completely defy sarcasm).

To top it off, the Crew have a very capable lefty on the bench in rookie Mat Gamel. The tall lefty bats with some power, walks some and most importantly, his jersey does NOT say Gerut on the back.

On a side note, what the hell happened to Gerut? In his rookie year with the Indians, Gerut had a line of .279/.336/.494 and belted 22 home runs, resulting in a respectable 120 OPS+. He even finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting, beating out fifth place Mark Teixiera.

Bye-Bye Billy

I rarely feel sorry for someone who will earn $6,925,000 in one year by simply playing a game.

It is difficult to conjure up sympathy for someone who gets a $90 per diem for meals on road trips, when I am stretching my budget if I spend $90 in one week on food.

If the point isn’t clear yet, it is nearly impossible to empathize with someone who is provided free beer in the club house, whether the Brewers win or lose.

But the case of Bill Hall has become so pathetic and so sad, even a broke, cynical college student such as myself, currently making $250 for the entire summer (yay unpaid internships!), has to feel for the current plight of the longest tenured Brewer. And plight it putting it mildly, because at the plate, Hall has reached American League pitcher/Ben Sheets levels.

The Crew’s ex-starting third baseman has dipped below .200 batting, has a measly .260 OBP and currently is sitting with a horrific OPS+ of 57.

Jeff Suppan the pitcher, on the other hand, is hitting .238 on the season, getting on base at a .333 clip and has a higher OPS+ with a 67.

The Hall supporters — which at this point can only include his family and friends lying to his face — would counter with Hall at least has some value against left-handed pitching.

Unfortunately, even that aspect of his game has gone into steep decline.

While Hall does hit lefties slightly better — in 61 plate appearances this year he has put up .241/.262/.397 —the numbers certainly don’t warrant continued playing time.

And manager Ken Macha is on his way to realizing that. In the last ten games, Hall has only started four times and has subbed in once.

Making things worse for the eight-year-veteran are the three players who can handle third base at the Brewer’s disposal. Casey McGehee has become a fan favorite and his bat has to be in the lineup every day. Craig Counsel is still batting .303 and in the words of Bill Schroeder, “always makes the correct play.”

Finally, we have Mat Gamel. Though the top prospect has started slowly for his major league career, he still as hit better than Hall with .239/.343/.386, and the youngster deserves a chance, because, you know, he is one of the top two prospects in the organization.

With McGehee, Counsel and Gamel all deserving at-bats, Hall is left with one role; a seven million dollar defensive replacement for Gamel.

And that is why I feel bad for Bill Hall.

NBA Draft thoughts

Two overriding thoughts on the NBA Draft yesterday before we get to the quick hitting stuff…

1. This draft was bad. Really, really bad. Every basketball analyst has been saying it for months, and for once, extreme groupthink may actually prove to be correct.Griffin is a strong candidate to be a star, even though he is going to the cursed Clippers. But after The Terminator (best nickname ever) there are more questions in this draft than on an SAT test (assuming half of these athletes actually took the SAT). More on this below

2. GM’s pick to protect their jobs. They do not pick to win. This isn’t even meant to be a strong criticism (though it is annoying). The word potential is used as a shield to ward off media questions and a prospect’s “high ceiling” is merely to protect the GM from crap raining down once said prospect busts. What else can explain DeMar DeRozan at No. 9?

Clippers No. 1 - Even the Clippers couldn’t screw up by not picking Griffin. Curiously, in an age where prospects are always “the next fill-in-superstar-name”, no one has compared Griffin to Amare Stoudemire. Like the Sun’s big man, Griffin doesn’t have many traditional post moves or great range on his jump shot, but he is a freak athletically who has a knack for finishing around the basket and throwing down ridiculous dunks. Perhaps Griffin’s above average intelligence has prevented the comparison’s to the, ahem, slower Stoudemire…

 Grizzlies No. 2 - Selecting a shot blocking, offensively challenged, big man from Connecticut with a cool African name? Clearly, the Grizzlies didn’t learn from the Bobcats…

Thunder No. 3 - A pick that I am torn on. While Rubio would have been nice here (Durant may have actually been drooling to play with a passer of the Spanish teenager’s level), Harden fills out the team well, and passing on the Spanish prodigy gives a boost of confidence to 2^nd year guard Westbrook. Besides, Harden actually can play, and continuing with the comparison game, reminds me of Paul Pierce with a worse jump shot but much better beard…

Kings No. 4 – Who wouldn’t want a “point guard” who averaged nearly as many assists (3.9) as turnovers (3.6) while playing in the powerhouse league that is Conference USA? Oh yeah, and he shot a stellar 27 percent from the college three point line. One more comparison, Rubio has been playing professionally since he was 13 — including shredding Team USA in the Olympic gold medal game — Evans has played roughly 40 games above the high school level…

Timberwolves No. 5 – Finally, someone shows some guts and takes a chance on a player who will have buyout issues but has drawn comparisons to Magic’s court sense. Obviously, little can be taken from a highlight video, but check it out anyways…

Timberwolves No. 6 – How has no beat reporter found out who the trade partners are going to be? Could Flynn and Rubio possibly work in the same backcourt? While the offensive possibilities would be intriguing, defensively the small Flynn (who played zone in college) and Mary Kate thin Rubio would be a disaster…

Warriors No. 7 – Who wouldn’t root for Curry. Nice kid with picture perfect jump shot…

Knicks No. 8 – Ehh, whatever, the Knicks won’t be interesting until Lebron signs with them or D’Antoni trades for Rubio. Have I mentioned I love Rubio?

Raptors No. 9 – Laughable reach at No. 9. With Terrence William’s still on the board, who has championship-role-player a la James Posey written all over him, the Raptor’s take Uber-athletic but no jump shot DeMar DeRozan. The new shooting guard for team Canada made six of 36 three pointers last season. His ceiling, at the very best, is Andre Iguodala. Most likely though, he will be a D-League sensation for the next three years…

Bucks No. 10 – Ahh, my hometown Bucks. Jennings has apparent attitude problems, no jump shot and put up poor numbers in Europe. But he is lightning quick!

Nets No. 11 – Jay Bilas can finally be satisfied. T-will is off the board. Also, Pitino won’t have to call in any mob favors since Williams didn’t fall out of the lottery…

Bobcats No. 12 – Cool story about UNC fans picking a Duke player. Henderson is also amusingly balding. Shave your head Jordan style!

Pacers No. 13 – Good pick. Few left in this draft are worth anything at all, and Hansbrough can succeed a la Utah’s Millsap as an undersized power forward…

Pistons No. 15 – Wherever Austin Daye went was too high. Awful pick for a fluffy-towel-soft big man with overrated perimeter skills…

No. 36 & 37– This is where Sam Young and Dejaun Blair went back-to-back. I stake my highly valued blog reputation that both of these players will be role players for contending teams in the near future. Both bring particular skills (defense for Young and rebounding for Blair) while succeeding with a big time college program in The Big East. With such stalwarts such as B.J. Mullens (couldn’t start at ohio state), Jrue Holliday (averaged a whopping 8.5 points at UCLA), and numerous foreign players who are doubtful to be in the NBA next year landing in the first round, one has to wonder how afraid GM’s are of losing their jobs.

Say No To...Racism?

So I am watching the US vs. Spain in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup, and it has been an extremely exciting game so far.

As I am writing this at half time, the US has scored an awesome goal where Jozy Altidore basically just boxed a defender out, and then shot it has hard as he could straight at the keeper who deflected it into the net to give the States a lead 1-0. There has been enough flopping and rolling on the ground to remind me why I have so little respect for soccer players, so all in all, pretty much everything I expect from a soccer match.

Except for this. The game stared with a slogan, "Say No To Racism."

What???

I am going to assume that the brains behind this message took it from "Say No To Drugs," which has been incredibly successful in the US. I mean, we have basically won the war on drugs, right?

Besides the obvious problems with syntax, however, how the hell does one say no to racism? 

Is racism a person, trying to lure unsuspecting kids into his clutches of prejudice?

Is racism a disease, inflicting the world with bigotry? Is there an antibiotic for racism? I didn't know before this match, that racism was a tangible object, to be rejected like a person handing out petitions at Memorial Library.

I understand the message (I think, with a slogan that bad it is hard to be sure), it means in the simplest simplest terms, racism is bad. But really, were slogans such as, "Stand up to racism" already taken. Could they not go with something more straight forward, such as "Fight racism in soccer".

Once again, the most popular sport in the world baffles me.

Horribly Hilly Hundreds

Last Saturday, I covered a bike race for the Capital Times/State Journal called the Horribly Hilly Hundreds that takes place about 30 miles west of Madison in Blue Mounds (for my story click here).

In short, anyone who participates in this race is freaking crazy. I mean absolutely nuts.

For the article, I was sent to the final rest stop for the 200K race, which is affectionately known as “The Graveyard.”

With people toeing that fine line between resting and keeling over from unimaginable exhaustion, the ground in this yard (owned by the hilariously colorful Steve Lehman) is just covered by bikers bodies. They will lay there occasionally sipping on water until they feel ready to tackle the remaining 26 miles, which is mostly uphill.

To give you an idea of these hills; I was driving a very old van to the race, and even with the pedal to the floor, this old junker was barely making it up the hills. Seriously, I thought it was going to stall out on in the middle of the race.

I talked to a few of these “resting” masochistic freaks, who said with a smile that their legs had cramped up to the point where they couldn’t walk. But once they could get up they would start biking again. What!?!?!?!

I also talked to someone who said that he would start biking again once he had drank 5 liters of water at the rest stop.

In the end, I don’t think I could relate to these people at all, but I took some pictures of them for the newspaper and here is what I came up with.

MLB replay system fails...no wait, just the Umps

So I have this friend who has agreed to watch Brewers games with me this season. She has never watched baseball before, and has very little interest in sports in general. Her favorite player is Prince Fielder, because he is a vegetarian and looks funny when he is running the bases.

In fact, it occurs to me as I am writing this that she is a pretty amazing friend for putting up with almost nightly games, but that’s not the point of this post.

Safe to say, her knowledge of baseball is fairly limited. Such as, “what does a 2-1 count mean again?” limited.

But even this girl, with her whole one month of experience, can understand how the MLB’s replay system should work — something the ump crew at the Brewers-Tigers game failed to grasp Friday.

Here is the scene: The Tigers had a man (speedster Josh Anderson) on first. Back up catcher Dusty Ryan puts a charge into a ball towards the left field foul pole. When it gets to the fence it caroms off the top of the wall and comes back to Ryan Braun who relays it to J.J. Hardy, who throws home for a potential play at the plate.

Except, as Hardy was throwing home, the third base umpire had already ruled the ball a home run, effectively ending the play.

To be clear about a couple of things; one, even a perfect throw from Hardy probably doesn’t get Anderson out. Two, they eventually overturned the play, giving Ryan an RBI double which was the correct call.

But as my rookie viewing partner correctly called, why the hell would they call it a homer when it was too close to call from 200 feet away and there is going to be movement on the base paths? Why wouldn’t you let it play out every single time and decide if it is a home run afterwards, instead of trying to guess where the runners should be positioned? Isn’t that what the replay is there for?

Now, I realize the blown call didn’t affect how the play turned out. The Brewers certainly weren’t losing 7-4 because of the umps (sigh, Braden Looper).

But if a girl who has only watched baseball for one month can immediately spot the error, why can’t a professional making at least $100,000 a year understand what judgment the situation calls for? 

Fielder for MVP?

When I sat down to write my first blog post, I was looking to start off with a bang — or at the very least, write something you couldn’t find in Sports Illustrated.

So with the MLB season a mere two-fifths of the way done, I thought, why not swing for the fences and speculate on what could be the first Brewers MVP winner in 20 years.

Though Ryan Braun is putting up his usual studly numbers and Hoffman might be the Crew’s best closer since Rollie Fingers, Milwaukee’s MVP and the biggest (literally) reason they are still in first place is Prince Fielder.

Through 66 games I thought the case for Fielder’s worthiness of being crowned the National League’s best player would be strong. For the archaic, worthless statistics that old baseball writers value so much, Fielder ranks among the senior league’s best. The 25-year-old first baseman is batting at a .302 clip, leads the majors with 64 RBI’s and has jacked 16 home runs. He also has the strong intangibles of good leadership — which as far as I can tell means he smiles a lot and gets really emotional during comeback wins.

For us Bill James types, however, Fielder’s season is even more impressive than the initial statistics would imply. The youthful hitter has learned to take his walks resulting in a .430 on-base-percentage. And of course, the portly first baseman hasn’t forgot how to mash the ball leading to a superb 169 OPS+.

Finally, the Brewers are currently in first place, everyone loves the story of a talented young star finally putting it together to ascend to the next level (as Fielder has done by taking walks), and the media vote for people who smile at them. Seriously, never discount the impact of a winning smile.

All in all, the Fielder-for-MVP-post looked like it had some major credibility…except for one nagging fact.

Fielder isn’t even the best first baseman in his division.

Doing his best Barry Bonds impression (but without the expanding head size…I hope), Albert Pujols is on a different level than any other hitter in the majors. The Cardinal’s slugger leads the league in homers with 23 and OPS+ with a ridiculous 199. Oh, and he also is carrying an offense with that boasts Skip Schumaker as its second best hitter.

Not that Pujols is underrated, but even in this age of advanced statistics, we still might not appreciate just how good he is.

Just think of the comparison: Fielder, the No. 7 overall pick and former all-star at his very best, can’t touch Pujols in an average year, batting in a lineup with Schumaker/Yadier Molina/Ryan Ludwick protecting him.

Ridiculous.

First Post

Welcome to the View From the Bleachers.

This blog is being started by an aspiring sports writer/college journalism student not because I think I have something revolutionary or important to say, but because my girlfriend keeps giving me dirty looks when I start to rant about Bill Hall.

In this space you can expect to find commentary on all sports Wisconsin, specifically Brewers, Packers and Badgers coverage. You can also expect to find mostly sarcastic and mocking posts, because that is what I do best. I know, original for the Internet, but I try not to take myself too seriously. Unless it is about Ryan Braun. I never kid about the Hammering Hebrew.

Whether you agree with my views or think my cynicism is nauseating, I love e-mail feedback so let me know.

Either way, I hope you enjoy the View From the Bleachers.